Afterworld
by THEwereWING11
Summary: The world is overrun with disease and war. Supplies dwindle and the rivers dry, but amongst the pain and torment, life must go on as it always has. Among the shadows lie many ponies, outcasts from society, feeding on the meat of wild creatures. Bloodshed reeks, and the sky is dark... Shall you let the war take you, or your hunger for flesh?
1. Treatment

Rarity turned a page in her book and began reading her next sentence aloud to the pony in the room with her. The hospital was often overrun with ponies, too many injured, and not enough room to hold them all. The storehouse next door was stocked up with extra mattresses and first-aid responders treating the sick and wounded.

Rarity stayed inside with a coma patient, reading to her. She liked helping out in the hospital in any way she could, though she knew nothing about first aid except the very basic things anypony would learn in school.

She continued her reading after the flip of another page, her light blue aura caressing the paper and turning it over. She finished at that page with the end of the chapter. She clapped the book shut and stood up off of her chair. She combed the knots out of her tail quickly before placing the book and the patient's night stand.

"Goodbye, Starlight. I hope you enjoyed the story..."

She turned away sadly and left the room, closing the door behind her. Trotting along down the busy halls, she brushed past the many patients and few doctors left to the confined corridors that happened to be the last space available for them.

She entered another room and closed the door behind her, though barely shutting out the sound of chaos right outside the door.

She turned to see the pony in the bed, and didn't recognize her. She wrapped the patients clip board in her aura and dragged it close to her face. "Hello, Pinkie Pie. I'm Rarity. I'm going to be reading to you for a while until you get better."

The silent pink pony on the bed looked up at Rarity and flicked her long, straight, grey-pink mane out of her eyes. "I'm not going to get better, Rarity. May as well leave me outside and spare the resources on someone else."

"That's not an option, Pinkie. We don't leave patients outside. We take all injured in." Rarity met Pinkies gaze for the first time. She saw the injuries and gasped before she could comprehend what exactly it was that she was seeing.

Pinkie had flesh ripped from her face on the right side, exposing bone and knocked out teeth, fragments in the skull structure, and torn tissues.

"I- I'm going to read for you... It's called The Invisible Mare." Rarity tried taking her gaze away but she found it impossible.

Pinkie Pie looked Rarity in the eye pleadingly. "Or... You could do me a real favor."

The white mare cocked her head curiously. "What is it?" She stepped close to the Pink Pony's bedside.

"Take those vials there," she said, pointing at the counter on the opposite side of the room, "and inject them all into here." Pinkie raised the medical tube connected to her, and pushed it towards Rarity. Rarity looked shocked.

"Are you asking me to kill you?"

Pinkie nodded silently and laid back down against her pillow. "I have no purpose here. Not like I'll ever be able to see clear again, and I'm just a waste of everyone's resources. This hospital only has so many rooms. I heard there's a warehouse full of extra ponies. No rooms to put them in or anything. I'd love for one of them to have this room in my place."

Rarity shook her head. "But they can keep you safe here. They can keep you heal-"

"No, they can't," Pinkie interrupted.

Rarity exited the room, slowly shutting the door behind her. She began walking away when she heard it.

The flat blaring of the monitor in Pinkie's room. Out of her misery, and out of her terrible, mangled body, and into the afterworld.

If she'd ever been found out... May Queen Cadence have mercy on her...


	2. A Shard Of Diamond

Diamond Tiara kicked a rock out of her way. It launched off the side of the crystalline bridge and plummeted to the chasm beneath. The day it began was the worst day of her life. She had lost everything, her parents, her friends, and her home. Applebloom had been her only friend throughout her school life. It was a very close relationship that they had, so close in fact that Applebloom's sister, AJ, had threatened Diamond. If she ever touched Applebloom again...

Diamond Tiara noticed her vision blurring as tears formed in her eyes. Applebloom had given Diamond the bow she wore on her head as a parting gift, then she was gone. Weeks later, she was announced as one of the first on the day's dead list. Timberwolves attacked the apple farm, and only Big Macintosh made it out alive, though he was very beaten up.

Diamond wiped her eyes and pushed her hair back out of her face. When was the last time she had a wash? There was never much water to spare for that kind of stuff. It was just for drinking, and even then there wasn't much to go around. All the wells were dry and full of dirt.

The air smelled putrid, to the point where you'd wonder where the decaying body was. Diamond figured it was in the chasm. How many ponies had gone on this very bridge just to jump off into the abyss below them.

"Hello?"

Diamond jumped at the sound and pressed herself up against the railing on the bridge, staring at the pony who had spoken. She was orange coated with a dark pink shade to her mane and tail. She had no mark on her flank, and her small wings were limp and lifeless at her sides. She calmed down rather quickly and stepped forward towards the young orange pony. "Who are you?"

The newcomer replied, "Scootaloo. I'm... Scootaloo. Do you have any place to stay?"

Diamond eyed Scootaloo over carefully, making sure she had nothing on her that would be means for concern. Finding nothing, she answered, "Yeah I do. Follow me."

Together the two made their way through the town, keeping out of the streets, and taking back alleys. Diamond slid open the door for Scootaloo to crawl through, and they both crept inside. The door clicked shut.

With a strike of a match, Diamond had lit a candle. She guided Scootaloo to the place where she rested and set the candle down next to her. "This is it. Not too much her. Just this hole I call home."

Scootaloo sat down slowly, her legs shaking. "This is wonderful, thank you."

Diamond Tiara opened a box to the foot of her mat that she used as a bed, and pulled a jar from inside. Within the jar were various pieces of food. Some were vegetables and flowers, others were chunks of meat. She offered it to Scootaloo, who reached inside and pulled out a withering old carrot.

"We've had to resort to killing some animals for food recently," Diamond stated sadly. "The rabbits haven't come by in months because we'd taken so many of them away. But it's impossible to grow food in this crystal soil..."

Scootaloo closed her eyes and bit down on the vegetable. "I haven't had anything besides meat for... I don't even remember how long."

Diamond Tiara closed the jar and set it aside. "I'm so sorry to hear that."

Scootaloo shook her head and faced Diamond. She smiled. "Thank you so much. You don't even know me but... You let me in. And now you're feeding me. I can't thank you enough."

The pink pony couldn't help but smile back at Scootaloo. "Then don't thank me. Just enjoy it."

Scootaloo took another bite of her carrot and stared off at nothing for a while.

The night time was quiet. Nothing seemed to move at all. Scootaloo's steady breathing was like that of complete relaxation.

Diamond sighed and drifted off to sleep, hoping that she had made the right choice in inviting the stranger into her home.


	3. The Living Woods

**Weeks Earlier**

The Everfree Forest seemed more grim and dark than it ever had before. The trees shivered in the cold, and the mud breathed out a murky dense fog with every exhale. Nature fought its own soil as crystal infected the dirt and murdered anything growing within. Squirrels tried to rest, and rabbits bundled together on the deathly grayed grass, struggling to maintain any form of warmth.

The weather had no guides. It acting on its own tuition, and disobeyed average laws of old.

Rainbow Dash quietly crawled out of her tent and stretched out her back and wings. A light cracking sound could be heard, and she let out a quiet relaxed moan.

Scanning the forest around her, she needed to look for something to eat. Vegetables were impossible to find, or at least ones that could actually be eaten. The crystalline infection had taken up so much of the country already, there was no telling what was or was not safe anymore. Rainbow Dash trusted nothing except what had a beating heart. She spotted her prey. A squirrel had just scurried out into the open. It dug fruitlessly at the ground in an attempt to gather any form of edible grass or seeds. It didn't see the cyan mare coming.

She lift off and darted at the rodent, crushing its tail beneath one hoof and knocking the creature over the head with her other hoof. The squirrel collapsed. She lifted up the creature with her teeth and carried it back to where her tent was set up. She struck up her fire and started to work on cooking the squirrel. It wasn't too big of a meal, but she couldn't afford going out to find much more, for fear of all the animals leaving the forest and ridding her of any form of sustenance.

She looked over her shoulder towards the tent and called out for her lone companion to join her.

"Heya, Scoots. Come on out for food." She set aside half of the meal and dug into her own. She'd never be entirely used to the flavours of meat. It never sat right in her stomach.

The small orange coated mare opened the flap on the tent and crawled out, rubbing her eyes. She yawned and sat next to Rainbow, picking up her portion and carefully devouring each morsel wordlessly. When she had finished, she gave Rainbow a hug and a smile before dragging herself tiredly back into the tent. Within minutes, she was snoring again.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and chuckled to herself. That little mare had more of a knack for snoozing than herself. Yawning, Rainbow herself noticed how long it had been since she last slept. A couple days at least.

She crawled inside the tent and layed down next to the young orange mare. She clicked a lantern to light and opened up her favorite book, 'Daring Do and the Forbidden City of Clouds'. It had been the only surviving book from her collection before Cloudsdale had fallen. She had probably read this particular issue over a hundred times by now. She chuckled as she started to read through it once again.

As she read, the words seemed to fade into pure memory as the story started playing off in her head, and her eyes closed.

The cyan mare stomped out the flaming torch that threatened to light the whole room ablaze. The large antlered dragon-lord Kirin had enough of Rainbow Dash's resentment to him. His flaming mane spiralled around him, and ruptured through the ground, making their way towards the blue pegasus. She adjusted her hat upon her head and trotted at top speed towards him as the floor exploded into a see of magic liquid flame. She jumped as high as she could with her injured wing. She could almost reach the edge...

Almost.

But Daring Do had her covered. The adventurer burst in through a door on the side of the room, and sent her whip to grasp a fissure in the ceiling. She swung across the fire and caught Rainbow right at the last second. They landed together on the solid ground and stared at each other for a moment.

"Thank you, Daring," Rainbow said gratefully.

"I'd never leave you hanging Rainbow Dash. You're my best companion yet." You could see the glimmer of honesty and trust in Daring's eyes. Rainbow had always loved how the shades in Daring's mane looked against her faded coat. The way her hat sat scantily upon her head, threatening to fall off at any sudden movement, but it never did. The way her- Well... The way she was in general. She was just so cool!

"Aren't you forgetting something, ponies?" The Qilin beast cackled in the background and mocked the ponies in their moment of intimacy. "I still have the amulet, and you will never take it from me!" And with a pivot of his back leg, and the sweeping downpour of his flaming man, Kirin was gone.

"He's escaping with the amulet, Daring! We've gotta find out where he's going!" Rainbow panicked and started running up to where Kirin had been.

Daring Do laughed and stamped her hoof on the ground. "You mean... This!?" She whipped the amulet out of her own pocket and held it up proudly. Rainbow looked shocked. "I exchanged this bad boy for a fake replica back at the old temple in the south. I knew he'd fall for it."

"But then, why'd you bother coming here?"

"I came for you, Rainbow. You're my most loyal companion. I couldn't bring this to the museum without you by my side." Daring gave a playful wink. Rainbow blushed and dug her hoof at the ground. She hadn't expected Daring to be so sweet to her, but she wasn't complaining. The adventurous mare stepped forward, placing one hoof carefully ahead of the last until she was right in front of her companion. She raised her hoof to Rainbow's chin and brought her lips close. Rainbow had dreamed of this for so long.

They inched closer to one another and closed their eyes, ready to lock into an intimate state of pure passion when-

"Rainbow Dash!"

The blue pony jumped up out of her sleep and stumbled back towards the corner of the tent. She stared at Scootaloo with panicked eyes and a fast-beating heart.

Scootaloo blushed and smiled nervously. "I appreciate the kiss but, perhaps not just... out-of-the-blue and without any form of explanation?"

Rainbow's heart started beating even faster. Had she just kissed Scootaloo? "No, no nonono. Um... That was an accident, I'm sorry. I was just dreaming and then I... Sorry."

Scootaloo sat down and brushed her hoof through her mane for a moment. "So, what were you dreaming about? Daring Do again?"

Dash sighed and nodded. "There was a big dragon-lord and fire and... Yeah."

Nodding and giggling to herself, Scootaloo casually sniffed the air. "Speaking of fire... Did you forget to put ours out last night? it smells kinda... Smokey."

Rainbow looked out of the tent towards the small fire pit. It had no coals in it, and the log had even gone missing. Curiously, she went back inside the tent, wondering where the smoke did come from, or where the log had disappeared to.

The crackling of branches and the crunching of leaves gave it away. The trees must have taken it. "Scootaloo, get out of the tent. We have to move. I may have accidentally given the forest a weapon.

"What do you mean?"

"We don't want to find out. We need to pack the tent as fast as we can." She grabbed her book and tossed it into a saddle bag. The saddle bag was pink, and she didn't recognise the cutie mark portrayed on it. Three balloons next to eachother, two blue ones on the outside and a yellow balloon sandwiched in the middle. She'd found this saddle bag about a month ago under a random bush outside of the train station in what used to be Ponyville.

The orange mare grabbed her only blanket and put it in the other side of the saddle bag. She made her way outside the tent to unpick the tent's pegs from the ground. Rainbow got out of the tent very soon after and grabbed the last couple of pegs with Scootaloo. They finished packing up the tent and left their location. The moved further into the forest, and away from the smoking trees.

Scootaloo shivered in her sleep. Her scraped hooves tapped on the floor of Diamond Tiara's hidden room. The young pink mare tossed a blanket over her new friend and hushed her down, gently combing through her mane with a tattered brush. The orange pony's hair flipped up at the end giving a hint of character to her that Diamond couldn't see before. Diamond tried to imagine what Scootaloo must have been before the world had fallen apart. She came to the conclusion she must have been into sports of some sort. Her name just suit the type.

Diamond fished a chunk of meat out of her jar and started to slowly chew away at the disgusting morsel. What had the Queen done to their once wonderful kingdom? She shook her head and quietly scoffed the Queen's name. "Cadence. You doomed our whole race..."


End file.
